Today’s lives are busy. A lot of things happen simultaneously and remembering all these tasks is a task in itself. Therefore, you might have seen people setting reminders in their phones to not miss anything.
Well, today we are going to tell you a story that has its origin in a time when the times were quite simpler but people still forgot their tasks and therefore, needed something to act as a reminder.
We are talking about those cute, little, available in multiple colours, sticky notes. Sticky notes are those small pieces of paper that have a very light adhesive (glue) on their backs. The adhesive allows the notes to be attached to a wide variety of documents and surfaces — and removed and reattached multiple times.
Spencer Silver, a chemist for the giant multinational company 3M, was attempting to develop a super strong adhesive but what he managed to come up with was totally opposite of it.
The glue that he made had a “removability characteristic” to it which allowed it to be peeled apart from the surfaces without damaging them. But this invention alone was not very useful.
Meanwhile, Art Fry,another employee at 3M was looking for something that would stick to the paper without damaging the pages and Eureka!
Fry was aware of Silver’s reusable adhesive, but he also didn’t know how to make it useful. So, he made some sticky notes and used it for his own work. Soon, the word spread in the office, and everyone came to him to take these little sticky pads for their own use. The company realised its potential and decided to sell it commercially, under the brand name ‘Post it’.
Fun Facts
Today, Post-it comes in 27 sizes, 57 Colours, and 20 fragrances.
50 Billion, yes 50,000,000,000 Post-it sticky notes are sold each year.
This generates revenue of $ 1 Billion for the company, each year. That’s $1,000,000,000; a hell lot of money.
Once Google made an art gallery in their office using sticky notes.